On the Table: Area restaurants now look to capture the flavors of fall
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Kaya's executive chef Sean Ehland has included pear clafoutis with cinnamon ice cream and glazed almonds; and apple fritters with an apple compote and vanilla ice cream, drizzled with dulce de leche, to the restaurant's fall menu.
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In the past 10 years, more and more restaurants have jumped on the eating local, farm-to-table bandwagon. This movement has had an incredible influence on modern American dining, and its benefits are numerous, but as a restaurant philosophy it's going stale.
Not only is it hard to tell which restaurants actually source a substantial portion of their ingredients locally or simply talk to a farmer on the phone and then call themselves farm-to-table, it is also clear that too many restaurants seem to believe that a local provenance makes up for an inferior product.
• Isabela on Grandview, 1318 Grandview Ave., Mount Washington; www.isabelaongrandview.com, 412-431-5882
• Habitat, Fairmont Pittsburgh Hotel, 510 Market St., Downtown; www.habitatrestaurant.com, 412-773-8848
• Kaya, 2000 Smallman St., Strip District; www.bigburrito.com/kaya, 412-261-6565
• Salt of the Earth, 5523 Penn Ave., Garfield; www.saltpgh.com, 412-441-7258
• Eleven Contemporary Kitchen, 1150 Smallman St.; www.bigburrito.com/eleven, 412-201-5656
• Dinette, 5996 Penn Circle South, East Liberty; www.dinette-pgh.com, 412-362-0202
Legume Bistro, 1113 S. Braddock Ave., Regent Square; www.legumebistro.com, 412-371-1815
Instead, restaurants should focus on cooking seasonally. Seasonality is a more flexible principle, one that allows restaurants to take the best of what they have available, but still consider ingredients from outside their immediate food shed when it makes sense. They won't serve tomatoes in January, but they also won't rely solely on cellared or over-wintered produce, because restaurant diners rightly expect greater variety and top quality.
Seasonal cooking allows chefs and diners to think of each new season as an opportunity to experience the flavors and textures best suited to that particular time of year, rather than lamenting Pennsylvania's limited growing season.
First Published September 23, 2010 12:00 am
